I find her comments and remarks amusing, actually. Anyway, I do use the gauntlets of DEX on her, and she ends up with a fantastic AC. I don't really use her ENTANGLE spell, because I don't like the effect and I end up entangling friendlies as much or more than enemies.
Jaheira may have not that great stats, she's got one of the most valuable BG1 class combo. Fighter/Druid is a great combination in BG1.
You usually use her as a melee fighter that also comes packed with healing spells and cure poison. She even gets to cast Call Nature Ally (or whatever is the name of the spell).
Sure, you have to make her use the gloves of dexterity (well, unless you pick another char that's short on dex...) but she's quite useful then.
The other healers are not that great themselves either, except maybe Viconia, but you'll have to prevent your rep getting to 18+ if your party is good-aligned.
Also note that as a fighter, she can chug potions to get godly thaco when it matters. There's also the level 2 mage spell Strength, that will grant her 18/50 for quite a long time.
none of the healers in BG1 are great, that's why you get the ring of sune so early in the game (which is like having 18 wisdom)
i think the original devs purposely didn't make any spectacular healer NPCs. don't know why, maybe they thought that clerics/druids were overpowered and didn't want them having too many spells (unlike the mage NPCs, who are all quite powerful (edwin, quayle and specialist mage)
then they later seemed to rectify that by adding 3 tomes of wisdom in. it's very strange
Haven't really noticed any hype when it comes to Jaheira in BG1
I've played with every single npc available in BG1 in numerous different team makeups and an NPC's stats have never got in the way of completing or enjoying the game in any of the playthroughs. Like a few others have said the npcs are more realistic then the Min/Max chars most people roll with a few exceptions like Coran and his 20 dex.
Fighter/Druid is a unique npc class and she is more than competent enough to get you through the series using it. She ties in a little to the story and is kind of a good starting point for new players considering Gorion sends you off to her, then you can expand and find new lineups etc once you have a little knowledge in regards to the game layout and where other npcs are in further playthroughs.
At the end of the day it comes down to personal preference. I'm more then comfortable teaming with any npcs and their various strengths and weaknesses and others will hate npcs for minor flaws or not living up to the expectations of what the class should be.
"Completely pointless" is a bit of an exaggeration.
I generally end up cheating her up to her BG2 dexterity value of 17 and swapping her pips from clubs to scimitars. Throw on some ankheg armor and she can wreck some shop.
She's no fit for my parties, so I won't judge her usefulness. I just want to say her voice in itself is not annoying - I absolutely love it if NPCs have an accent. It's her personality that I find annoying. If she had different lines, her voiceset would be among the best in the game.
Jaheira is one of those characters I take in 70% of my playthroughs - she's such a consistent npc , with a cool accent, interesting story, nice gameplay possibilities (proficiencies and spells) ... besides, in BG2 she turns to be more of a guardian and becomes a friend (or more, if you romance her).
In BG1 her attributes reflect a half elven druid who has had martial training , and amazing constitution - it makes sense that she hasn't spent her whole life practing with a bow , dodging and cutting trees with an axe . Besides, as others have said , you don't need to min max everybody in order to have fun in BG .
I like Jaheira because I prefer multiclass variants to single-classed druids/clerics. Divine spellcasters are useful, but not so useful that it justifies going single-class to try to squeeze out extra spells, and undead in BGEE are neither common enough nor dangerous enough to justify wanting a high turn undead level. While Jaheira may have middling stats, Branwen and Viconia are nothing to write home about either. Yeslick comes pretty late in the game and has the same middling Str and Dex that you have to compensate for in Jaheira if you want to use him on the frontline
So basically, none of the cleric/druid options in BGEE are awe-inspiring, but you can pick up Jaheira very early and her Fighter levels help compensate for her middling Strength (whereas Branwen, Faldorn, and Viconia just have to live with it), so she ends up getting used by default more often than not.
... (Well, there's also Firebead Elvenhair, who magically gets to Beregost before you... but he doesn't help at all. Jerk. Do you think it's because he knows I stole his Identify scroll?)
He gives you the scroll case for one small favour. And that scroll case was a big help.
All druids, clerics, fighter / clerics and fighter / druids are crap.
Because once you go ranger / cleric, you can never go back.
I disagree and think that there is still value in the Fighter/Cleric and Fighter/Druid, for three reasons:
1) Kit benefits: The Berserker kit is really good, with rage providing blanket immunities that a R/C would have to spend multiple spells trying to match, and would still come up short on some of the most important. Likewise, a Kensai->Druid gets some very juicy advantages that complement druid spellcasting. In contrast, none of the Ranger kits do very much for a Ranger->Cleric.
2) Fighter/Druids can use Belm. While they miss out on some of the juicy cleric buff spells, being able to hit the attack cap and then be improve hasted is nothing to sneeze at.
3) Multiclass Fighter/Clerics can be Dwarves, and get those monster shorty save bonuses.
All druids, clerics, fighter / clerics and fighter / druids are crap.
Because once you go ranger / cleric, you can never go back.
I disagree and think that there is still value in the Fighter/Cleric and Fighter/Druid, for three reasons:
1) Kit benefits: The Berserker kit is really good, with rage providing blanket immunities that a R/C would have to spend multiple spells trying to match, and would still come up short on some of the most important. Likewise, a Kensai->Druid gets some very juicy advantages that complement druid spellcasting. In contrast, none of the Ranger kits do very much for a Ranger->Cleric.
2) Fighter/Druids can use Belm. While they miss out on some of the juicy cleric buff spells, being able to hit the attack cap and then be improve hasted is nothing to sneeze at.
3) Multiclass Fighter/Clerics can be Dwarves, and get those monster shorty save bonuses.
And no matter how hard you try to kill F\C, they will always rise up again, more powerful, wiser, stronger, even the biggest ones fall, no matter how, but, only some get up again (excluding the Nameless One, he ever, gets, up, again). And then F\D are pretty good, no matter the flail you use to hit on them, they can dual-wield Scimitars (Belm and that +5 from ToB, its 23:52 and half of my brain is sleeping (call me a dolphin and you'll me my anger) as I wish I could) and use Spears, clubs, DARTS, then, ehm, well, they look good, yes they do! But they SUCK as multi-Class, Fighter\Druids are totally based in Dual-Class, where they are pretty good (and you were wise to dual-class at F lvl13, not so much, see the druid XP progression table :P And Beastmaster->Cleric?? It goes good, even for RP choices. Still thinking Priest of Helm lvl10->Mage is a lot more OP, and don't even talk about a Conjurer\Priest of Helm :P XD
Comments
I find her comments and remarks amusing, actually. Anyway, I do use the gauntlets of DEX on her, and she ends up with a fantastic AC. I don't really use her ENTANGLE spell, because I don't like the effect and I end up entangling friendlies as much or more than enemies.
Fighter/Druid is a great combination in BG1.
You usually use her as a melee fighter that also comes packed with healing spells and cure poison.
She even gets to cast Call Nature Ally (or whatever is the name of the spell).
Sure, you have to make her use the gloves of dexterity (well, unless you pick another char that's short on dex...) but she's quite useful then.
The other healers are not that great themselves either, except maybe Viconia, but you'll have to prevent your rep getting to 18+ if your party is good-aligned.
Also note that as a fighter, she can chug potions to get godly thaco when it matters.
There's also the level 2 mage spell Strength, that will grant her 18/50 for quite a long time.
My character establishes a close friendship with both Jaheira and Khalid during their travels, so they stay in the party.
i think the original devs purposely didn't make any spectacular healer NPCs. don't know why, maybe they thought that clerics/druids were overpowered and didn't want them having too many spells (unlike the mage NPCs, who are all quite powerful (edwin, quayle and specialist mage)
then they later seemed to rectify that by adding 3 tomes of wisdom in. it's very strange
I've played with every single npc available in BG1 in numerous different team makeups and an NPC's stats have never got in the way of completing or enjoying the game in any of the playthroughs. Like a few others have said the npcs are more realistic then the Min/Max chars most people roll with a few exceptions like Coran and his 20 dex.
Fighter/Druid is a unique npc class and she is more than competent enough to get you through the series using it. She ties in a little to the story and is kind of a good starting point for new players considering Gorion sends you off to her, then you can expand and find new lineups etc once you have a little knowledge in regards to the game layout and where other npcs are in further playthroughs.
At the end of the day it comes down to personal preference. I'm more then comfortable teaming with any npcs and their various strengths and weaknesses and others will hate npcs for minor flaws or not living up to the expectations of what the class should be.
"Completely pointless" is a bit of an exaggeration.
"Fall, creature, and feed the Earth!"
"Nature, take the life she gave!"
In BG1 her attributes reflect a half elven druid who has had martial training , and amazing constitution - it makes sense that she hasn't spent her whole life practing with a bow , dodging and cutting trees with an axe . Besides, as others have said , you don't need to min max everybody in order to have fun in BG .
So basically, none of the cleric/druid options in BGEE are awe-inspiring, but you can pick up Jaheira very early and her Fighter levels help compensate for her middling Strength (whereas Branwen, Faldorn, and Viconia just have to live with it), so she ends up getting used by default more often than not.
Seriously, in a game when special abilities are hard to come by, Jaheira's is pretty "beast."
(Haha. Beast. Get it? Eh? ...I'll be quiet now.)
Because once you go ranger / cleric, you can never go back.
1) Kit benefits: The Berserker kit is really good, with rage providing blanket immunities that a R/C would have to spend multiple spells trying to match, and would still come up short on some of the most important. Likewise, a Kensai->Druid gets some very juicy advantages that complement druid spellcasting. In contrast, none of the Ranger kits do very much for a Ranger->Cleric.
2) Fighter/Druids can use Belm. While they miss out on some of the juicy cleric buff spells, being able to hit the attack cap and then be improve hasted is nothing to sneeze at.
3) Multiclass Fighter/Clerics can be Dwarves, and get those monster shorty save bonuses.
And then F\D are pretty good, no matter the flail you use to hit on them, they can dual-wield Scimitars (Belm and that +5 from ToB, its 23:52 and half of my brain is sleeping (call me a dolphin and you'll me my anger) as I wish I could) and use Spears, clubs, DARTS, then, ehm, well, they look good, yes they do! But they SUCK as multi-Class, Fighter\Druids are totally based in Dual-Class, where they are pretty good (and you were wise to dual-class at F lvl13, not so much, see the druid XP progression table :P
And Beastmaster->Cleric?? It goes good, even for RP choices. Still thinking Priest of Helm lvl10->Mage is a lot more OP, and don't even talk about a Conjurer\Priest of Helm :P XD